Method to prevent toxic gas emission

ABSTRACT

A method of containing, shipping, storing, and handling objects to prevent water vapor from entering the container atmosphere and to avoid toxic gas emission from the container atmosphere to the outside environment.

United States Patent Smith METHOD TO PREVENT TOXIC GAS EMISSION Inventor: Donald E. Smith, Towson, Md.

Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Army Filed: Jan. 21, 1971 Appl. No.: 108,541

Related US. Application Data Division of Ser. No. 796,367, Feb. 4, 1969, Pat. No. 3,593,767.

us. Cl. ..s3/22 A, 53/27 Int. Cl. ..B65b 31/04 Field of Search .Q .Q ..53/7, 22 R, 22 A, 27

[451 Dec. 12, 1972 [56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,242,686 5/1941 Tirrell ..53/7 X 3,396,762 8/1968 Paton....

Primary Examiner-Travis S. McGehee Attorney-Edward J. Kelly [5 7] ABSTRACT A method of containing, shipping, storing, and handling objects to prevent water vapor from entering the container atmosphere and to avoid toxic gas emission from the container atmosphere to the outside environment.

2 Claims, 7 Drawing Figures METHOD TO PREVENT TOXIC GAS EMISSION This application is a divisional application of my pending U. S. Pat. application Ser. No. 796,367 filed Feb. 4, I969 U.S. Pat. No. 3,593,767.

DEDICATORY CLAUSE The invention described herein may be manufactured, used, and licensed by or for the Government for I governmental purposes without the payment to me of any royalty thereon.

My invention relates to a method of containing,

shipping, storing, and handling objects to prevent moisture from entering a storage container and to prevent toxic gas emission from the container; the method utilizing a barrier shipping and storage container for a racket system warhead section containing conventional GB toxic agent.

The rocket system warhead-section cannot be made to prevent leakage of GB toxic agent payload contained in the warhead section. This problem of GB toxic agent leakage obviously is a safety hazard in shipping, storing, and handling warhead sections containing GB toxic agent, and my invention was conceived and reduced to practice to overcome this problem.

A principal object of my invention is to provide a method of using a barrier container for a rocket system warhead section containing GB toxic agent which prevents escape of toxic agent to the outside environment and avoids a toxic agent contamination hazard.

Another object of my invention is to provide a simple and reliable method to assure safety in handling a warhead section containing toxic GB agent during shipping, storing, and handling of the agent filled warhead section.

A further object of my invention is to provide a simple and reliable method which will assure safety in handling a warhead section containing toxic GB agent, which will withstand rough handling of a warhead section containing toxic GB agent and which will permit agent monitoring means.

Other objects will be obvious from or will appear in the specification hereinafter set forth.

FIG. 1 is a view of the shipping box to contain'a rocket system warhead section enclosed in my barrier container used in my method.

FIG. 2 is a view showing a rocket system warhead section enclosed in my barrier container within the shipping box of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a view showing spherical munitions containing toxic agent as the payload within a rocket system warhead section; the warhead section being enclosed in my barrier container.

FIG. 4 is a view showing the filter port assembly for my barrier container.

FIG. 5 is a view showing the end flap assembly for my barrier container.

FIG. 6 is a view showing the sampling port assembly for my barrier container.

FIG. 7 is a view showing the assembled end of FIG. 5 with a shipping block in place.

My invention and FIGS. 1 to 7 will now be described in detail as follows.

My barrier container used in my method is fabricated from a water-vapor proof material, hereinafter referred to as barrier material, which is capable of being readily cut, formed, and heat sealed; such as material which conforms to class 1 of military specification B-l3lE, and consists of five layers of material heat sealed together; namely, .one layer of at least 3 mil thick polyethylene, a layer of 44/40 count linen fabric material superimposed on the 3 mil polyethylene, a layer of at least 1 mil thick polyethylene superimposed on the linen fabric, a layer of at least 0.07 mil thick aluminum foil superimposed on the 1 mil polyethylene, and a layer of at least 3 mil thick polyethylene superimposed on the aluminum foil. The material is cut in three sections 1, as shown in FIGS. 2, 3, and 5, to conform to the warhead configuration, and the sections are heat sealed together to form a container 2 having seams 3 as shown in FIG. 3. Heat sealing and seam forming is accomplished by overlapping the edges of adjacent sections 1% inches and running a flat heating iron having a temperature range of 200 to 500F along the overlapped material at a temperature suitable to fuse the layers of material together. One seam is heat sealed to a distance on each end of the sections sufficient to hold the sections together but to permit insertion of the warhead within the barrier. container. Prior to heat sealing, the ends of the sections which are to form the container aft end are cut to form pie shape configurations 4, as shown in FIGS 3 and 5. Pic shaped structures 4 are then folded inwardly, as shown in FIG. 5, and two barrier material discs 5 and 6 are placed on either side of the folded pie shaped structures. A wood disc of the same diameter as the barrier material discs is placed behind disc 6, the wood disc not being shown in the drawing, to act as a support means during heat sealing, and the two discs and pie shaped structures are sealed together, in the conventional plastic heat sealing manner and as described above, to form a hermetic seal to prevent water vapor from entering the container and toxic gases from escaping the container upon completion of the final container closure. While my discs were 29 inches in diameter, this dimension is adjustable within the skill of the art to suit the size and configuration of the object being sealed within my barrier container. Four holes 60f convenient size consistent with the object to be contained within my barrier container are punched in the pie shaped structure end of my container to permit securing the object 10, containing payload l1 and to be contained within the barrier container, to shipping block 7 by studs 8, as shown in FIG. 7, for mounting within shipping box 9, shown in FIG. 1. Five sampling ports 12, to periodically check and test for any toxic contamination within my sealed barrier container, and one filter port 13 to continuously bleed off any toxic vapor within my sealed barrier container, as shown in FIG. 2, are located within my barrier container at any convenient location. Located within sampling ports 12 are hollow, cylindrical, threaded lead-in structures 14 hermetically sealed within sections 1 of my barrier container and fastened thereto by gasket 15 and nut means 16, as shown in FIG. 6. Dust cap 17 is provided to install on and seal lead-in 14 while sampling is not taking place to avoid dirt clogging the leadin; the cap 17 being connected to nut 16 by chain 18 to avoid loss of the cap. Threads are provided on lead-in 14 to permit connection of a vacuum pump, not shown in the drawing, thereto to enable evacuation of any gaseous atmosphere within my barrier container whenever necessary. Located within filter port 13 is a hollow and tappered lead-in structure 19 hermetically sealed within section 1 of my barrier container and fastened thereto by gasket 15 and nut means 16, as shown in FIG. 4. Lead-in structure 19 is provided with conventional gripping ridges, not shown in the drawing, to enable fastening conventional tubing 20, such as polyethylene tubing, thereto for connection to a conventional gas absorption canister means 21, such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,825,424; the canister being located within shipping box 9 at any convenient location, as shown in FIG. 2, and permanently connected during shipping, handling, and storage to lead-in structure 19 to continuously absorb any toxic gas escaping from the contained object into my barrier container. After carefully placing object 10 in a manner to avoid damaging my barrier container within my barrier container, the final seam 3 is heat sealed, mounting block 7 is bolted to object 10 as shown in FIG. 7, the barrier container containing object 10 with mounting block 7 attached thereto is located within shipping box 9 as shown in H6. 2, the atmosphere within my hermetically sealed barrier container is exhausted in the conventional manner by vacuum pump means, a vacuum test is conducted to insure a properly sealed assembly in the conventional manner such as in accordance with military specification P-l 16D paragraph 4.4.3.4 Method lAl6, and top 22 is fastened to box 9 by any conventional means such as nails or screws. Access covers 24 are fastened by screw means 25 to top 22 to permit easy removal and to gain access within box 9 to permit sampling by means of structures 14 as required. Tie down strap 26, fastened to box 9, is provided to prevent the contained object 10 from shifting during shipping and handling.

It is obvious that other modifications can be made of my invention, and I desire to be limited only by the scope of the appended claims.

lclaim:

l. A method of containing, shipping, storing, and handling an object to prevent emission of toxic gases from within a container means atmosphere to the outside environment and to avoid water vapor entrance into a container means enclosing the object, the method comprising the steps of cutting a plurality of sections of heat scalable and water vapor and toxic gas impermeable material into a predetermined configuration, heat sealing all sections together to form an enclosure having an opening sufficient to introduce an object to be stored within the container, hermetically sealing at least one sampling port means within a section, hermetically sealing at least one filter port means within a section, placing an object to be contained within the container, heat sealing the opening in the container to hermetically seal the object within the container, connecting the filter port means to a toxic gas absorbing canister means, connecting a vacuum pump means to the sampling port means, evacuating the atmosphere from within the container means, sealing the sampling port means by dust cap means, and placing the hermetically sealed container enclosing the object within a shipping box means for shipping, storage, and handling.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the impermeable material consists of a layer of heat sealable plastic at least three units thick, a layer of linen fabric superimposed on the three m ils plastic, a layer of heat sealable plastic at least one mil thick superimposed on the linen fabric, a layer of aluminum foil at least 0.07 mil thick superimposed on the one mil plastic, and a layer of heat sealable plastic at least three mils thick superimposed on the aluminum foil; the layers being heat sealed together to form an integral unit. 

1. A method of containing, shipping, storing, and handling an object to prevent emission of toxic gases from within a container means atmosphere to the outside environment and to avoid water vapor entrance into a container means enclosing the object, the method comprising the steps of cutting a plurality of sections of heat sealable and water vapor and toxic gas impermeable material into a predetermined configuration, heat sealing all sections together to form an enclosure having an opening sufficient to introduce an object to be stored within the container, hermetically sealing at least one sampling port means within a section, hermetically sealing at least one filter port means within a section, placing an object to be contained within the container, heat sealing the opening in the container to hermetically seal the object within the container, connecting the filter port means to a toxic gas absorbing canister means, connecting a vacuum pump means to the sampling port means, evacuating the atmosphere from within the container means, sealing the sampling port means by dust cap means, and placing the hermetically sealed container enclosing the object within a shipping box means for shipping, storage, and handling.
 2. The method of claim 1 wherein the impermeable material consists of a layer of heat sealable plastic at least three units thick, a layer of linen fabric superimposed on the three mils plastic, a layer of heat sealable plastic at least one mil thick superimposed on the linen fabric, a layer of aluminum foil at least 0.07 mil thick superimposed on the one mil plastic, and a layer of heat sealable plastic at least three mils thick superimposed on the aluminum foil; the layers being heat sealed together to form an integral unit. 